We Aren't From Here

A Friendly Chat

It was noon when a housekeeper had called the demigods downstairs for lunch. They had been given new clothes, but opted for what they'd been wearing over the strange outfits.

The house was nice, like ridiculously, lavishly, nice. The dining room was cozy and the food smelled divine. They'd eaten in a tense silence for most of the meal. When everyone was nearing the end of their meal, Kaz spoke up.

"So," He got right to the point. "Who are you, and how did you get here?"

Annabeth looked at him consideringly. Nico had told them everything he'd found out earlier that morning, but that wasn't much. No one had slept enough, instead they had freshened up and attempted to form a plan.

They would be as honest as possible given what they knew. She knew they didn't trust Piper, and Nico was off putting to most people. Annabeth didn't typically come off very friendly, but people took to Hazel pretty easily. So when they started asking questions, it was Hazel who answered most of them.

"My name is Hazel and these are Nico, Will, Reyna, Thalia, Jason, Frank, Percy, Annabeth, Leo, and Piper," she gestured to each of her friends in turn. "We're from America."

"Canada, actually," Frank mumbled, not loud enough for the crows to hear.

"Interesting," the Barrel boss said, not sounding very interested. "Now, answer the second question."

She had been hoping to sidetrack the conversation, but that clearly hadn't worked. "We were on a mission to get rid of that void, rift thing."

"Who sent you on that mission?"

"It was a consensus of multiple parties," she vaguely answered his question without a real answer. Hazel didn't like his open and shut questions. He was controlling the conversation and they hadn't learned anything.

"Why did they send a bunch of kids?" Kaz continued.

"You're a bunch of kids too," she retorted. "Tell us about yourselves."

The lockpick raised an eyebrow, his expression amused. "Kaz Brekker," he said. "This is my crew."

"Eh," Wylan said. "Only sometimes."

"What kind of crew?" Percy butted in.

"The kind that works jobs."

Growing up in New York, Percy had encountered a few gang members before. With the way this guy talked and moved, he expected they were involved in a similar line of work.

"We don't want any trouble," the son of Poseidon said.

"Neither do I," he leaned forward. There was still a certain dark humor lacing Kaz's voice. It was unnerving.

"What was it like going through the dark hole?" Jesper cut in, the question directed to Nico and Frank, who were whispering to each other.

"Uhh," Frank stumbled slightly. "It didn't really feel like anything. We just walked through and fell somewhere else."

"Well," Nico added. "There was a couple seconds of darkness, it was pretty brief though."

Frank looked over to him, confused. "It wasn't dark for me."

"Oh," was all Nico could say. That was what Will said too when he had asked earlier.

The son of Hades had started thinking, and Frank knew he'd lost him. Jesper, however, took on a look of utmost shock. "Scheming face!" He exclaimed in an excited, almost whisper.

Nina's head turned to look over and she gasped softly and dramatically. "He's like a mini Kaz!"

The gang leader just shook his head. These idiots were exhausting sometimes.

The demigods were totally lost at this point but could see the similarities between Nico and Kaz Brekker. Then their minds shifted to how Inej moved like Nico did, quiet and unnoticed. Kinda freaky.

Will snapped his boyfriend out of it and got straight to the point, "What do you want from us?"

Kaz looked him over and stood up. "You interest me," he said before making his way to the door. "I have business at the Crow Club. Find out what you can." The last part was directed to Inej, who nodded.

Jesper made some apologies on Kaz's behalf and Wylan officially welcomed their guests to his home. Nico excused himself upstairs, claiming he was still tired. He had to take a minute to convince Will to stay downstairs and find out what he could about this new city.

The son of Hades went to his shared room and closed the door behind him. His mind was going 100 miles an hour and his body couldn't keep up.

When they jumped through the Rift, he stopped in the darkness. He was there, he'd felt it. So why didn't anyone else?

There was only a few seconds of it, but Nico could picture it clearly. Both deafeningly dark and blindingly bright. Perfectly silent and yet thrumming with noise. The feeling of standing so alone, but feeling like someone was there with you, watching you.

The son of Hades took a deep breath, closed the blinds, and faded into the darkness.

Leo had gone upstairs too. Everyone was talking and giving each other suspicious looks, so he said he needed to work on Festus and left.

The fire wielder was glad for the time alone. Ignoring his dragon friend for now, he instead found his bag and searched inside. Leo pulled out a carefully wrapped package and set aside the wrappings.

I was a jar-like container that he handled with care. He turned it over in his had and peered at the contents. Muttering incoherently, he slowly unscrewed the lid. The liquid sloshed lightly as he turned the jar.

"What if I just-" he started to tilt it slightly before seeming to change his mind. The son of Hephaestus put his container back in its wrapping and then back in his bag. He needed a more secure area to test it.

Leo had been doing increasingly dangerous experiments recently, typically making sure no one else was in danger. He preferred Bunker 9, but the Waystation was pretty safe as well. He'd been cut off after offhandedly asking Piper is she thought his powers would get stronger if he drank gasoline. The comment was only a joke, but she didn't want him getting any stupid ideas. Ever since then he wasn't allowed to test out his powers in weird ways, and most of his regular fire training had been cut off too.

Piper thought they had gone overboard, but Chiron actually insisted that his training would be monitored afterward.

Leo lit a fire n the palm of his hand. He started small and it slowly grew. It was controlled and he could shoot fire from his hands, but that was it. He couldn't control the blasts too well and had no real power over the fire unless it came from him. He wanted to change that.

When the blaze had gotten as large as his hand, he willed it back. His eyes glowed in the firelight, dangerous ideas on the brain. The flame simmered down, before finally snuffing out and plunging the room into darkness.